Armenian News - What does the Armenian Genocide mean to you?...Read on...
We've reached 2015, the centenary year of the Armenian Genocide.
To prepare you for your involvement in the 100th:
click on this testimony of a survivor, Nahabed Messerlian
(filmed in 1987)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOH2nWEUxxc&index=3&list=UUFi0zEyZhtCej0dXJbjlvcA
You will at least be disturbed, maybe wonder how you would have
fared in such cruel circumstances.
You cannot help admire the inner strength of a young boy from a
rural Western Armenian village.
EDITORIAL: 2015Friday, January 2nd, 2015
This most anticipated year is upon us. Armenians throughout the world
will come together to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide.
But beyond commemoration, the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide
This most anticipated year is upon us. Armenians throughout the world
will come together to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide.
But beyond commemoration, the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide
must become the turning point, at which, we as Armenians--the entire
Armenian Nation--in unison to not simply demand the recognition of the
Genocide, but everything else that follows that statement of
truth--justice in the form of reparations and restitution.
As Turkey continues to deny the Genocide and fails to take
responsibility for the gruesome actions of its Ottoman predecessors,
Armenians, specifically the government of the Republic of Armenia,
must be steadfast in their convictions and not fall prey to the whims
of those for whom the recognition of the Armenian Genocide is not
beneficial.
Turkey leads that pack, which also includes the governments of
Armenian Nation--in unison to not simply demand the recognition of the
Genocide, but everything else that follows that statement of
truth--justice in the form of reparations and restitution.
As Turkey continues to deny the Genocide and fails to take
responsibility for the gruesome actions of its Ottoman predecessors,
Armenians, specifically the government of the Republic of Armenia,
must be steadfast in their convictions and not fall prey to the whims
of those for whom the recognition of the Armenian Genocide is not
beneficial.
Turkey leads that pack, which also includes the governments of
the United States, Great Britain and others, which are stepping
up their efforts to alter the truth and draw a "new course" for the
discussion of the Armenian Genocide.
We have witnessed, in the past few months, an increase in official
reports, academic analyses and expert assessments that attempt to,
first and foremost, draw a wedge between the aspirations of the
Armenians living in Armenia and those living in the Diaspora. This
dangerous trend, which claims that only the Armenians in the Diaspora
are seeking the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, while those in
Armenia are anxious for dialogue, aims to create a diversion and plays
into the fear mongering by Turkey, which despite behaving as an
adversary toward its NATO allies, continues to impact policy and the
continuation of Genocide denial.
The first step must come from the Armenian Government, which
We have witnessed, in the past few months, an increase in official
reports, academic analyses and expert assessments that attempt to,
first and foremost, draw a wedge between the aspirations of the
Armenians living in Armenia and those living in the Diaspora. This
dangerous trend, which claims that only the Armenians in the Diaspora
are seeking the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, while those in
Armenia are anxious for dialogue, aims to create a diversion and plays
into the fear mongering by Turkey, which despite behaving as an
adversary toward its NATO allies, continues to impact policy and the
continuation of Genocide denial.
The first step must come from the Armenian Government, which
has been silent in the face of a recent report by the British Foreign
Office about the Armenian Diaspora, which sought to undermine
the political activism by Diaspora Armenians and falsely asserted
that Armenians as a Nation do not foster the same aspirations.
Armenia's Foreign Ministry (and perhaps the Diaspora Ministry)
should issue a forceful rebuke of this mischaracterization, especially
since Armenian government officials always elevate the Diaspora as
one of the critical pillars of Armenia's survival.
Then there is another element that is adding fuel to the denialist
perspective: Armenians who believe that this century-young struggle
has run its course and our National efforts must be put forward toward
the betterment of Armenia. Those who fighting for Genocide
recognition, these elements claim, must focus their efforts to
fighting injustice in Armenia. This is a warped concept, since
fighting injustice is a universal tenet and one does not outweigh the
other. These so-called modern-day "thinkers" should realize that by
giving up the cause for justice for the Armenian Genocide, does not
make them strong advocates for justice in the socio-economic and
political sphere in Armenia. No one said fighting for justice was easy
or convenient. Now, more than ever, with the withering of the survivor
generation, Armenians must elevate the cause, or else we would be
carrying out Turkey's wishes and advancing their policy of denial at
all costs.
As this most anticipated date is upon us, let us abandon the rhetoric
and truly come together as a Nation to combat this historical
injustice, because only fighting the good fight for a Free, United and
Independent Homeland, will bring make us stronger as a nation and
propel us to a greater future.
Happy New Year!
Today's Zaman, Turkey
Dec 31 2014
Entering 1915
CENGÄ°Z AKTAR
Who knows, all the evil haunting us, the endless mass killings and our
inability to recover from afflictions may be due to a century-old
curse and a century-old lie. What do you think? This is perhaps the
malediction uttered by Armenians -- children, civilian women and men
alike -- who died moaning and buried without a coffin. It may be the
storms created in our souls by the still-agonizing specters of all our
ill-fated citizens, including Greeks and Syriacs and later, Alevis and
Kurds.
Perhaps the massacres that have not been accounted for since 1915 and
the `prices' that have remained unpaid are now being paid back in
different venues by the grandchildren. The curses uttered in return
for the lives taken, the lives stolen, the homes plundered, the
churches destroyed, the schools confiscated and the property
extorted... "May God make you pay for it for all your offspring to
come." Are we paying back the price of all the injustices committed so
far? Does repayment manifest itself in the form of the audacity of
being unable to confront our past sins or in the form of indecency,
which has become our habit due to our chronic indulgence in
unfairness? It seems as if our society has been decaying for a
century, festering all around.
Despite this century-old malediction, 2015 will pass with the
Then there is another element that is adding fuel to the denialist
perspective: Armenians who believe that this century-young struggle
has run its course and our National efforts must be put forward toward
the betterment of Armenia. Those who fighting for Genocide
recognition, these elements claim, must focus their efforts to
fighting injustice in Armenia. This is a warped concept, since
fighting injustice is a universal tenet and one does not outweigh the
other. These so-called modern-day "thinkers" should realize that by
giving up the cause for justice for the Armenian Genocide, does not
make them strong advocates for justice in the socio-economic and
political sphere in Armenia. No one said fighting for justice was easy
or convenient. Now, more than ever, with the withering of the survivor
generation, Armenians must elevate the cause, or else we would be
carrying out Turkey's wishes and advancing their policy of denial at
all costs.
As this most anticipated date is upon us, let us abandon the rhetoric
and truly come together as a Nation to combat this historical
injustice, because only fighting the good fight for a Free, United and
Independent Homeland, will bring make us stronger as a nation and
propel us to a greater future.
Happy New Year!
Today's Zaman, Turkey
Dec 31 2014
Entering 1915
CENGÄ°Z AKTAR
Who knows, all the evil haunting us, the endless mass killings and our
inability to recover from afflictions may be due to a century-old
curse and a century-old lie. What do you think? This is perhaps the
malediction uttered by Armenians -- children, civilian women and men
alike -- who died moaning and buried without a coffin. It may be the
storms created in our souls by the still-agonizing specters of all our
ill-fated citizens, including Greeks and Syriacs and later, Alevis and
Kurds.
Perhaps the massacres that have not been accounted for since 1915 and
the `prices' that have remained unpaid are now being paid back in
different venues by the grandchildren. The curses uttered in return
for the lives taken, the lives stolen, the homes plundered, the
churches destroyed, the schools confiscated and the property
extorted... "May God make you pay for it for all your offspring to
come." Are we paying back the price of all the injustices committed so
far? Does repayment manifest itself in the form of the audacity of
being unable to confront our past sins or in the form of indecency,
which has become our habit due to our chronic indulgence in
unfairness? It seems as if our society has been decaying for a
century, festering all around.
Despite this century-old malediction, 2015 will pass with the
debate, "Was there really genocide?" remaining unanswered.
We will watch how the current tenants of the state exert vast
efforts to cover up this shame and postpone any move to
confront it. If it were in their hands, they would just skip the
year 2015. The denialist prose that consists of three wizened
arguments, which amount to upheaval, collaboration with the
enemy and victimization -- it is the Armenians who killed us
-- will continue to be parroted in a series of conferences. And
we will dance to our own tunes. On April 24-25, 2015 an official
ceremony will be held on the occasion of Anzac Day in Gallipoli,
not in connection with the genocide. And we will hear abundant
tales about heroism in the Dardanelles. But we will find none to
listen to our narrative.
How many more maledictions need to happen to us before we will be
How many more maledictions need to happen to us before we will be
inclined:
- To reckon with our bloody nation-building process?
- To know and remember how an innocuous, hardworking, productive,
talented and peaceful people were destroyed by the warrior people of
Anatolia and to empathize with their grandchildren in remembrance?
- To feel the gist of the tyranny that made unfortunate Armenians cry,
"Ur eir Astvadz" (Where were you God?) in the summer of 1915, which
was as dark and cold as death?
- To realize that the population of Armenians has dwindled from
millions in 1915's Ottoman Empire to virtually none today. The
remaining Armenians have either concealed their true identities or
were converted to Islam, after sweeping aside the puzzle, "Was it
genocide or not?" or the question "Who killed whom?" and purely
listening to our conscience?
- To understand, as Hrant Dink put it, a full-fledged cultural
genocide and the loss of a tremendous amount of civilization?
- To realize that the biggest loss to this country is that non-Muslim
citizens of this land no longer live here?
- To comprehend why the genocide -- which Armenians of those dark days
would refer to as the Great Catastrophe (Meds Yeghern) -- is a
disaster that befell not only Armenians, but the entire country?
- To see that the loss of our non-Muslim citizens who were killed,
banished or forced to flee amounts to the loss of brainpower,
bourgeoisie, culture and civilization?
- To calculate the curse of the goods, property and children confiscated?
- To duly understand the wisdom of the author YaÅ?ar Kemal, who wrote:
"Another bird cannot prosper in an abandoned nest; the one who
destroys a nest cannot have a nest; oppression breeds oppression"?
- To even realize that those who would reject all the aforementioned
points would do so because of a loss wisdom deriving from the
genocide.
The Armenian genocide is the Great Catastrophe of Anatolia, and the
mother of all taboos in this land. Its curse will continue to haunt us
as long as we fail to talk about, recognize, understand and reckon
with it. Its centennial anniversary actually offers us a historic
opportunity to dispense with our habits, understand the Other and
start with the collective therapy.
PR Newswire
December 30, 2014 Tuesday 8:11 AM EST
USC Shoah Foundation to Add Testimonies from Armenian
- To reckon with our bloody nation-building process?
- To know and remember how an innocuous, hardworking, productive,
talented and peaceful people were destroyed by the warrior people of
Anatolia and to empathize with their grandchildren in remembrance?
- To feel the gist of the tyranny that made unfortunate Armenians cry,
"Ur eir Astvadz" (Where were you God?) in the summer of 1915, which
was as dark and cold as death?
- To realize that the population of Armenians has dwindled from
millions in 1915's Ottoman Empire to virtually none today. The
remaining Armenians have either concealed their true identities or
were converted to Islam, after sweeping aside the puzzle, "Was it
genocide or not?" or the question "Who killed whom?" and purely
listening to our conscience?
- To understand, as Hrant Dink put it, a full-fledged cultural
genocide and the loss of a tremendous amount of civilization?
- To realize that the biggest loss to this country is that non-Muslim
citizens of this land no longer live here?
- To comprehend why the genocide -- which Armenians of those dark days
would refer to as the Great Catastrophe (Meds Yeghern) -- is a
disaster that befell not only Armenians, but the entire country?
- To see that the loss of our non-Muslim citizens who were killed,
banished or forced to flee amounts to the loss of brainpower,
bourgeoisie, culture and civilization?
- To calculate the curse of the goods, property and children confiscated?
- To duly understand the wisdom of the author YaÅ?ar Kemal, who wrote:
"Another bird cannot prosper in an abandoned nest; the one who
destroys a nest cannot have a nest; oppression breeds oppression"?
- To even realize that those who would reject all the aforementioned
points would do so because of a loss wisdom deriving from the
genocide.
The Armenian genocide is the Great Catastrophe of Anatolia, and the
mother of all taboos in this land. Its curse will continue to haunt us
as long as we fail to talk about, recognize, understand and reckon
with it. Its centennial anniversary actually offers us a historic
opportunity to dispense with our habits, understand the Other and
start with the collective therapy.
PR Newswire
December 30, 2014 Tuesday 8:11 AM EST
USC Shoah Foundation to Add Testimonies from Armenian
Survivors to Commemorate 100th Anniversary of Armenian
Genocide
LOS ANGELES
In honor of the upcoming 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
that will be commemorated on April 24, 2015, USC Shoah Foundation -
The Institute for Visual History and Education is readying at least 40
of the nearly 400 Armenian testimonies it has secured from the
Armenian Film Foundation for inclusion in the Visual History Archive.
It is anticipated the entire collection will be integrated by the fall
of 2015.
USC Shoah Foundation and the Armenian Film Foundation signed an
agreement in April of 2010 to digitize the interviews the late Dr. J.
Michael Hagopian recorded on 16mm film between 1972 and 2005. Hagopian
was an Emmy-nominated filmmaker who made 70 educational films and
documentaries during his career, including 17 films about Armenians
and the Armenian Genocide, winning more than 160 awards for his work.
"This project will unveil a trove of film testimony about of a
horrific chapter of human history that remains woefully
under-examined," said Karen Jungblut, director of research and
documentation at the Institute. "It also brings a new viewing
experience to the Visual History Archive in that these interviews -
most of which predate our 1994 founding - were conducted mainly for
the purpose of creating documentaries, not necessarily standalone life
histories."
The Armenian collection contains a broad range of interviewee
categories, including not only survivors of the Armenian Genocide, but
also of other groups targeted by the Ottoman Turks, such as the
Greeks, Assyrians and Yezidis. Also included are non-victim witnesses
to the atrocities - such as Christian missionaries and Arab villagers
- as well as descendants of the survivors and several renowned
scholars.
The Institute is integrating the testimonies into the Archive with the
help of Richard G. Hovannisian, a professor emeritus at UCLA and a
leading expert in Armenian studies.
"The addition of these interviews to the Visual History Archive will
provide broad access to a multilingual collection of material," said
Hovannisian, now an adjunct professor of history at USC and the
project's scholarly adviser. "It will help to bring sorely needed
attention - and study - to this dark corner of human understanding."
Because these interviews were conducted by a documentary filmmaker,
this collection brings diversity to the Visual History Archive when it
comes to the style and format of the testimonies, as well as the
methodology used to collect them.
The most immediately noticeable distinction is that all of the
interviews were recorded on film -- so a clapboard kicks off every
take to synchronize sound and picture. The testimonies themselves are
generally much shorter - averaging 15 minutes in length, while the
other testimonies in the Visual History Archive run more than two
hours on average. Some survivors are also interviewed more than once,
over a period of time.
Unlike the other existing collections in the Visual History Archive,
the Armenian testimonies - with a few exceptions -- are not
chronologies. Filmmaker Hagopian intended the interviews to be filmed
depositions - limited only to the eyewitness account of the survivor
during the genocide - and not beyond. Interviewees in the Archive to
date have given their life stories before, during and after the
genocide in question.
The filmmaker also relied on pre-interviewing the subjects, to be
certain they were actually eyewitnesses to the events. The camera was
only turned on when he was satisfied they were indeed eyewitnesses,
and not speaking from hearsay. The interviewee would then be asked to
tell Hagopian his or her story - the same story relayed in the
pre-interview process.
On occasion, the Armenian interviews were conducted in groups - such
as in churches or old-age homes.
Unlike existing collections in the Visual History Archive, this is a
documentary film collection, containing the complete unedited
interviews, including behind-the-scenes footage. While the camera
positioning on all testimonies currently contained in the Visual
History Archive are fixed, the camera in the Armenian collection zooms
in and out, and pans left and right. The purpose of moving the camera
was for establishing and editing shots - standard practice for
documentary filmmakers.
Unlike video interviews, where the sound and picture are combined on
one tape, 16mm film interviews include separately recorded sound and
picture. Each interview includes both the "synched up" sound and
picture, as well as any additional sound the filmmaker recorded
(labelled as "audio only" sections).
To save production costs associated with shooting in 16 mm film,
Hagopian only turned the camera on when the survivor or eyewitness was
speaking about a relevant issue (based on the pre-interview). If he
thought they were wandering off track, he would only record their
sound. If he thought the anecdote was worthy of recording on film, he
would turn the camera on. All of the extra sound for every interview
is included in the collection (in "audio only" sections).
Film school students will be interested to see and hear off-camera
moments in this collection, which include occasional technical faults,
and directions by the filmmaker to his sound recordist, translators
and camera assistants. Members of the crew can sometimes be seen
milling about in the background, performing sundry duties such as
setting up gear or operating the clapboard.
In every testimony, Hagopian can be heard giving direction, either to
his crew or the interviewees. Himself a child survivor of the Armenian
Genocide, Hagopian - who died in 2010 at age 97 - asks his subjects to
retell certain stories, sometimes over and over, in an effort to say,
in the most succinct way, what they actually saw with their own eyes.
Similar to a lawyer obtaining factual detail for a legal deposition,
he wanted to know the "who, what, when, where and how" of the
survivor's eyewitness experience. If a survivor said, "They did it,"
Hagopian would ask, "Who? Who did it?"
"Michael Hagopian generously gave us full access to his film dailies,
which is akin to a diary in that they normally wouldn't be seen by the
public," said Hrag Yedalian, a program coordinator with the Institute.
"This lends a certain candor to these interviews, which are at times
unsettling to watch, but poignant."
Like all the testimonies in the Visual History Archive, these will be
searchable to the minute thanks to a team of indexers who tag
specially created indexing terms to a digital time code. The
distinctive nature of this collection has raised some indexing
challenges.
For instance, all too often, Armenians were rescued from the death
marches by self-interested parties who wanted to use them for slave
labor. This raised a question: Should this type of situation be tied
to the indexing term "rescue" -- which is widely used in the Visual
History Archive's Holocaust and other genocide testimonies - or
something else?
Similarly, in a tragic theme that played out during the Armenian
atrocities, desperate mothers often tried to give away their children
in a last-ditch attempt to ensure their survival. The families that
took them in could be abusive or exploitive. What term should be used
to describe a phenomenon that falls in the gray zone between adoption
and kidnapping?
Working closely with Hovannisian, indexers expect this collection will
necessitate adding as many as 300 new search terms to the 62,000
already in the Archive.
"While the patterns of mass violence during this period are sadly
familiar, there are certain characteristics unique to this history
that can be captured and brought to light with the creation of new
terms," said Crispin Brooks, curator of the Institute's Archive.
To highlight the distinctness of the Armenian testimonies, USC Shoah
Foundation is releasing two advance clips on its website
atsfi.usc.edu. One features Mihran Andonian, who was just a boy when
his family was deported from Isparta in western Turkey in 1916. By his
telling, in a matter of days, a death march of Armenians led by Turks
would reduce his extended family of 11 to three: his mother, his
sister, himself. The others died.
Like all of the testimonies in this collection, Andonian's account is
prompted by the clap of the slate-board. In this particular testimony,
the interview starts with a sound recording before the camera records
actual picture. Hagopian can be heard giving direction and talking
film jargon with crew members.
The other features Haroutune Aivazian, who said that his family's
vineyard was confiscated by the authorities at the time. Aivazian
survived because his mother dropped him off at a German orphanage
built by missionaries to shelter kids whose parents perished in the
Hamidian and Adana massacres of the late 19th and early 20th
centuries, respectively, killing between 100,000 and 350,000 people.
This testimony begins with a slow, dramatic pan of the camera from
left to right. Here, too, Hagopian asks Aivazian to tell his story -
the story he told Hagopian in the pre-interview process.
"Even those of us who did survive, we lost something very precious,"
Aivazian said. "Something which is the birthright of every person:
childhood. We lost our childhood."
The testimonies have served as primary source material for Hagopian's
documentaries about the Armenian Genocide, including "The Forgotten
Genocide" - recipient of two Emmy nominations in 1976 - and the
Witnesses Trilogy ("Voices from the Lake;" "Germany and the Secret
Genocide;" and "The River Ran Red").
"He understood the importance of recording the testimonies of aging
eyewitnesses before their accounts were lost forever," said Carla
Garapedian of the Armenian Film Foundation. "We are gratified to see
this collection included in one of the world's most extensive and
respected video archives. The voices of the people haunted by these
atrocities will now be accessible to teachers, students, scholars and
the general public on a global scale."
About USC Shoah Foundation
USC Shoah Foundation - The Institute for Visual History and Education
is dedicated to making audio- visual interviews with survivors and
other witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides, a compelling
voice for education and action. The Institute's current collection of
more than 53,000 eyewitness testimonies contained within its Visual
History Archive preserves history as told by the people who lived it,
and lived through it. Housed at the University of Southern California,
within the Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and
Sciences, the Institute works with partners around the world to
advance scholarship and research, to provide resources and online
tools for educators, and to disseminate the testimonies for
educational purposes.
Contact: Josh Grossberg 213-740-6065
josh.grossberg@usc.edu
Rob Junia 213-740-0965
rkuznia@usc.edu
In honor of the upcoming 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
that will be commemorated on April 24, 2015, USC Shoah Foundation -
The Institute for Visual History and Education is readying at least 40
of the nearly 400 Armenian testimonies it has secured from the
Armenian Film Foundation for inclusion in the Visual History Archive.
It is anticipated the entire collection will be integrated by the fall
of 2015.
USC Shoah Foundation and the Armenian Film Foundation signed an
agreement in April of 2010 to digitize the interviews the late Dr. J.
Michael Hagopian recorded on 16mm film between 1972 and 2005. Hagopian
was an Emmy-nominated filmmaker who made 70 educational films and
documentaries during his career, including 17 films about Armenians
and the Armenian Genocide, winning more than 160 awards for his work.
"This project will unveil a trove of film testimony about of a
horrific chapter of human history that remains woefully
under-examined," said Karen Jungblut, director of research and
documentation at the Institute. "It also brings a new viewing
experience to the Visual History Archive in that these interviews -
most of which predate our 1994 founding - were conducted mainly for
the purpose of creating documentaries, not necessarily standalone life
histories."
The Armenian collection contains a broad range of interviewee
categories, including not only survivors of the Armenian Genocide, but
also of other groups targeted by the Ottoman Turks, such as the
Greeks, Assyrians and Yezidis. Also included are non-victim witnesses
to the atrocities - such as Christian missionaries and Arab villagers
- as well as descendants of the survivors and several renowned
scholars.
The Institute is integrating the testimonies into the Archive with the
help of Richard G. Hovannisian, a professor emeritus at UCLA and a
leading expert in Armenian studies.
"The addition of these interviews to the Visual History Archive will
provide broad access to a multilingual collection of material," said
Hovannisian, now an adjunct professor of history at USC and the
project's scholarly adviser. "It will help to bring sorely needed
attention - and study - to this dark corner of human understanding."
Because these interviews were conducted by a documentary filmmaker,
this collection brings diversity to the Visual History Archive when it
comes to the style and format of the testimonies, as well as the
methodology used to collect them.
The most immediately noticeable distinction is that all of the
interviews were recorded on film -- so a clapboard kicks off every
take to synchronize sound and picture. The testimonies themselves are
generally much shorter - averaging 15 minutes in length, while the
other testimonies in the Visual History Archive run more than two
hours on average. Some survivors are also interviewed more than once,
over a period of time.
Unlike the other existing collections in the Visual History Archive,
the Armenian testimonies - with a few exceptions -- are not
chronologies. Filmmaker Hagopian intended the interviews to be filmed
depositions - limited only to the eyewitness account of the survivor
during the genocide - and not beyond. Interviewees in the Archive to
date have given their life stories before, during and after the
genocide in question.
The filmmaker also relied on pre-interviewing the subjects, to be
certain they were actually eyewitnesses to the events. The camera was
only turned on when he was satisfied they were indeed eyewitnesses,
and not speaking from hearsay. The interviewee would then be asked to
tell Hagopian his or her story - the same story relayed in the
pre-interview process.
On occasion, the Armenian interviews were conducted in groups - such
as in churches or old-age homes.
Unlike existing collections in the Visual History Archive, this is a
documentary film collection, containing the complete unedited
interviews, including behind-the-scenes footage. While the camera
positioning on all testimonies currently contained in the Visual
History Archive are fixed, the camera in the Armenian collection zooms
in and out, and pans left and right. The purpose of moving the camera
was for establishing and editing shots - standard practice for
documentary filmmakers.
Unlike video interviews, where the sound and picture are combined on
one tape, 16mm film interviews include separately recorded sound and
picture. Each interview includes both the "synched up" sound and
picture, as well as any additional sound the filmmaker recorded
(labelled as "audio only" sections).
To save production costs associated with shooting in 16 mm film,
Hagopian only turned the camera on when the survivor or eyewitness was
speaking about a relevant issue (based on the pre-interview). If he
thought they were wandering off track, he would only record their
sound. If he thought the anecdote was worthy of recording on film, he
would turn the camera on. All of the extra sound for every interview
is included in the collection (in "audio only" sections).
Film school students will be interested to see and hear off-camera
moments in this collection, which include occasional technical faults,
and directions by the filmmaker to his sound recordist, translators
and camera assistants. Members of the crew can sometimes be seen
milling about in the background, performing sundry duties such as
setting up gear or operating the clapboard.
In every testimony, Hagopian can be heard giving direction, either to
his crew or the interviewees. Himself a child survivor of the Armenian
Genocide, Hagopian - who died in 2010 at age 97 - asks his subjects to
retell certain stories, sometimes over and over, in an effort to say,
in the most succinct way, what they actually saw with their own eyes.
Similar to a lawyer obtaining factual detail for a legal deposition,
he wanted to know the "who, what, when, where and how" of the
survivor's eyewitness experience. If a survivor said, "They did it,"
Hagopian would ask, "Who? Who did it?"
"Michael Hagopian generously gave us full access to his film dailies,
which is akin to a diary in that they normally wouldn't be seen by the
public," said Hrag Yedalian, a program coordinator with the Institute.
"This lends a certain candor to these interviews, which are at times
unsettling to watch, but poignant."
Like all the testimonies in the Visual History Archive, these will be
searchable to the minute thanks to a team of indexers who tag
specially created indexing terms to a digital time code. The
distinctive nature of this collection has raised some indexing
challenges.
For instance, all too often, Armenians were rescued from the death
marches by self-interested parties who wanted to use them for slave
labor. This raised a question: Should this type of situation be tied
to the indexing term "rescue" -- which is widely used in the Visual
History Archive's Holocaust and other genocide testimonies - or
something else?
Similarly, in a tragic theme that played out during the Armenian
atrocities, desperate mothers often tried to give away their children
in a last-ditch attempt to ensure their survival. The families that
took them in could be abusive or exploitive. What term should be used
to describe a phenomenon that falls in the gray zone between adoption
and kidnapping?
Working closely with Hovannisian, indexers expect this collection will
necessitate adding as many as 300 new search terms to the 62,000
already in the Archive.
"While the patterns of mass violence during this period are sadly
familiar, there are certain characteristics unique to this history
that can be captured and brought to light with the creation of new
terms," said Crispin Brooks, curator of the Institute's Archive.
To highlight the distinctness of the Armenian testimonies, USC Shoah
Foundation is releasing two advance clips on its website
atsfi.usc.edu. One features Mihran Andonian, who was just a boy when
his family was deported from Isparta in western Turkey in 1916. By his
telling, in a matter of days, a death march of Armenians led by Turks
would reduce his extended family of 11 to three: his mother, his
sister, himself. The others died.
Like all of the testimonies in this collection, Andonian's account is
prompted by the clap of the slate-board. In this particular testimony,
the interview starts with a sound recording before the camera records
actual picture. Hagopian can be heard giving direction and talking
film jargon with crew members.
The other features Haroutune Aivazian, who said that his family's
vineyard was confiscated by the authorities at the time. Aivazian
survived because his mother dropped him off at a German orphanage
built by missionaries to shelter kids whose parents perished in the
Hamidian and Adana massacres of the late 19th and early 20th
centuries, respectively, killing between 100,000 and 350,000 people.
This testimony begins with a slow, dramatic pan of the camera from
left to right. Here, too, Hagopian asks Aivazian to tell his story -
the story he told Hagopian in the pre-interview process.
"Even those of us who did survive, we lost something very precious,"
Aivazian said. "Something which is the birthright of every person:
childhood. We lost our childhood."
The testimonies have served as primary source material for Hagopian's
documentaries about the Armenian Genocide, including "The Forgotten
Genocide" - recipient of two Emmy nominations in 1976 - and the
Witnesses Trilogy ("Voices from the Lake;" "Germany and the Secret
Genocide;" and "The River Ran Red").
"He understood the importance of recording the testimonies of aging
eyewitnesses before their accounts were lost forever," said Carla
Garapedian of the Armenian Film Foundation. "We are gratified to see
this collection included in one of the world's most extensive and
respected video archives. The voices of the people haunted by these
atrocities will now be accessible to teachers, students, scholars and
the general public on a global scale."
About USC Shoah Foundation
USC Shoah Foundation - The Institute for Visual History and Education
is dedicated to making audio- visual interviews with survivors and
other witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides, a compelling
voice for education and action. The Institute's current collection of
more than 53,000 eyewitness testimonies contained within its Visual
History Archive preserves history as told by the people who lived it,
and lived through it. Housed at the University of Southern California,
within the Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and
Sciences, the Institute works with partners around the world to
advance scholarship and research, to provide resources and online
tools for educators, and to disseminate the testimonies for
educational purposes.
Contact: Josh Grossberg 213-740-6065
josh.grossberg@usc.edu
Rob Junia 213-740-0965
rkuznia@usc.edu
